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Who: HANGE!!! GArak, Coil and Zhas
Broadcast: none
Action: closed to Red Fish crew
When: sometime... when they're in range of the planet... after whenever the waystation mingle goes up...?

[She'll take a look at the spa later - after slowly going a little stir-crazy on the ship, Hange wouldn't close herself in another building (no matter how luxurious) by choice.

Now, just as she's been, she prowls and paces along the edge of the forest, looking in. She looks excited: her eyes wide, pupils dilated, grinning absentmindedly. The movement never quite stops. The whoops and cries of distant birds or other, more alien things; the smell of wet ground and the rustle of leaves... it's like home, just like home, just like being at home, all she needs is her 3DMG and her horse and her squad. If only.

Hange will head in soon. She's seen that path and - it could be a trap, but her nature is way too direct to pass up so courteous an invitation. Soon enough...]

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[hey, Hange is the one who suggested no one goes out alone.

Zhas is about as familiar with forests as he is with cities--it's not home, but it doesn't bother him. he knows where to look for danger, and to compensate for Coil's blind side. the place feels bizarre, but not any more threatening than any other forest.

he also keeps a forced calm around himself, maybe to compensate for Hange, as well. he doesn't doubt that she can keep herself together, he just... well, okay, maybe he does.]

[and Coil might not be entirely familiar with the forest, but... the magic here is just saturating him. it's a very small high that is keeping him aware and ready.

just drinking up all the energy his little makeshift rituals just haven't been able to give him.]

[Hey, she's very together right now. Give her something to concentrate on, a job to do, and watch how she smooths out almost instantly. A lot in common with the boys in that respect.

She likes the animal and insect noises and how, although the three of them travel in a little aura of silence, it closes after them quickly. Animal noises are security. Nothing's scaring them up. Brings back memories of riding through fields outside and scaring up birds, the titans chasing them scaring up birds...

It's nice, is all. They have solid minutes of peaceful travel and then in the distance still through the trees there is a sort of distant boom. A thud like a tree falling maybe or... something familiar to her. Hange turns her head like a bloodhound, face closing off abruptly. She was relaxed, now she's not. She starts to swing the gun off her shoulder, casually. Not hard for the boys to notice. That sounded... a little like... but it would be impossible...

But all of this should be impossible.]

Edited 2015-01-11 04:15 (UTC)

[he's so keyed-in to things like this that the sound catches his immediate attention. he tries to identify it--explosion? gunshot? maybe something falling, but nothing he's familiar with.

hange's energy is high. he keeps listening. if the sound gets closer, that's when they'll have a problem.]

[like Hange, he levels out when he's got a job to do, and that doesn't kick in until something actually happens.

the sound rumbles through the three of them, the energy shifts, and that's finally when Coil appears the most balanced. quietly and automatically, he drifts more toward the deeper pools of shadow near the side of the path--but not leaving it, surely--and pivots a little, to give him the widest field of vision. focused and waiting.]

[She speeds up a little, unconsciously. No real reason to it right this second. She's carrying the gun and jogging, with eyes mostly for the direction of the sound. Which means she can see it quite clearly - everyone probably can - when the giant, humanoid figure becomes clear.

It looks like it was maybe relaxing? Attracted by three little humans passing by. And now it's standing up. A ten-meter type, deformed and a little grotesque the way they usually are, with limbs too spindly for its bloated stomach and a head that's disproportionately small, brown-haired, grinning with brainless cheer, naked and clean-shaven with no sexual characteristics at all.

It spots them and then it makes a run for them. Maybe sixty feet away through the trees, it runs carelessly, snapping smaller plants, crushing shrubs, and brushing by the bigger trees. A wave of heat rolls in front of it, incredible heat pushing on them like a wind. Hange roars. She's squaring up to shoot.]

Off the trail! Get off the trail! Both of you off!

Edited 2015-01-11 05:43 (UTC)

[the funny thing is, there's this little voice at the back of his head that tells him this can't possibly be real. he's usually so good at following that instinct... but the sheer size of the thing that comes lumbering towards them really pushes all of that out of the way.

there's no way they can take that thing down. what is she thinking?

he takes several steps back towards the edge of the path, but remembers their warning--and stops short.]

[and Coil, being up ahead of Zhas, feels particularly small and vulnerable when this monster comes bearing down on them.

of all the abominations his family has created, all the creatures that he's fought since then, none of them could have compared to the sheer horror of this thing. he's awestruck, in both fascination and fear.

and he falls back fast, keeping his eyes on the creature and leaving Hange to her doom without a second thought, but it's only until Zhas comes into view out of the side of his vision. he stops there, side-by-side.]

[She's not thinking of taking it down but of blinding it, buying them a few second's time. It would be an incredibly insane fluke to be able to take the titan down with this little gun. Maybe if she shot through it's nape when it stuffed her in its mouth... if she still had all her limbs at that point.

Well, whatever, she ignores the boys for the moment, what they're doing or not doing, and fires, aiming for the head. The titan is closing the ground between them at a terrifying rate, running heedless of whatever it smashes into. It's a long shot, between the obfuscating foliage and the moving target, and a weapon Hange isn't exactly practiced with. Nevertheless it might be a good one... it's just hard to tell. There's an explosion of birds and wildlife being scared up around the approaching monster now, and the water in the wood is superheated by her ray guuuun and changes to steam almost instantly, cracking wood and hissing wildly.

Hange turns around, sees the boys still on the train, and rushes them to try and herd them both off.]

Get moving!

[yeah, this is way out of his league.

he's still hesitating by the side of the road. getting chased by this thing and getting crushed by falling timber sounds fun, sure--and in the middle of trying to piece together something to do, Hange is yelling at them and trying to bodily shove them off the road.

it's probably a really good idea, but he's still resistant to moving..]

[and Coil isn't going anywhere without Zhas.

so, when he finally tears his eyes away from the monster, it's to fiercely stare at his partner, pleading for him to tell him what to do.]

[You guys are pains in the ass. Hange will tackle Zhas off the trail if she has to, which is what she's trying next.]

[OOF WELL I guess he's getting tackled off the path, then. there's your order, Coil.]

[well. shit. that does clarify things a little!

he immediately bolts after them, snagging Zhas' sleeve and hauling him along if he has to, just so they can all find their feet and keep moving without falling into the dirt.]

[Good. Running is a good idea. She'll make scouts of you two yet!]

Alright - we need to - split up and head back for the ship. Different routes.

[okay okay he's running, jesus.

though he steals a glance back at the path--and it's gone. long gone. he can't even see it through the trees. feeling like they're all or nothing now, he taps Coil's arm to redirect him. they'll go left, mostly straight forward. he's content leaving Hange to her own route.]

[and that decides it. as soon as Zhas directs him, he veers off, and then splits a little further to put just a little distance between himself and Zhas.

he still wants to keep him in sight, but there's no reason they should be tripping over each other in their mad dash through the trees.]

[Good. Hange herself veers back towards the path, still running. She's the captain, and she's also the one who's armed; she'll beat around the brush a little more, give the boys time to get clear. She hopes.]

[they do good, get pretty far away. or so they think. the woods all start to look the same after a while, and time gets kind of... weird... so they get to spend a good hour being lost and enchanted but, happily, not eaten by a titan.]

Edited 2015-01-12 01:01 (UTC)

[Hange's trip is also a long one, longer than the boys, because she spends a lot of time winding around and sometimes randomly shooting shit, trying to attract titans if they are in the area. The woods might not like this, but it has only itself to blame, right?

It seems like she should be crossing the path back and forth, to her, but she's not. Her suspicions and her temper get worse, and when she finally gets spit out from the trees - within sight of the trail (it's right over there, seriously?), her temper hangs heavy in a palpable cloud. She's also vaguely surprised to be alive.

Now to find the boys. Hopefully they're back around the ship. She stalks that way.]

Edited 2015-01-12 02:10 (UTC)

[they're easy enough to find, hanging around the ship. they seem to be deep in conversation about something, with Zhas signing quickly and Coil watching.

they've been out for a while, talking about whether or not they should go after Hange (or maybe just get the hell off this planet), but then they started in a discussion about what followed them. Zhas is explaining what he knows about Titans--what he remembers from their drunken conversation, anyway.]

[and Coil looks deeply confused about what Zhas is trying to explain.

but then he spots Hange approaching from around Zhas' shoulder, and he interrupts the discussion to look surprised and nod in her direction.

look at that. she's still alive, and no hulking monster is barreling after her.]

[She up-downs both of them too, some of the tension easing off of her.]

Both of you all right?

[Man, they're both alive. In some senses, that's more than she expected. Under normal circumstances, a titan would be attracted to humans traversing the woods... and without maneuver gear, horses, or titan-to-human combat experience, they'd have been goners for sure.]

[he drops his hands to nod. they're fine. no reason to worry.]

[Coil nods as well and then points to her, following it up with a drawn question mark in the air.]

Edited 2015-01-14 04:47 (UTC)